When seventeen-year-old
Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is
intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of
inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s
best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does
Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother
after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother,
hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los
Angeles. But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of
her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an
agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most
heart-breaking and far-reaching of all..

Expected publication date: 2nd February 2012

My Review - 10 out of 10

This book was just amazing. There were so many twists and turns in this book I did find it very difficult to know which way the story was going to take me... I did feel really sorry for Rosie. She lost her mother and then found out that she wasn't her mother. Rosie struck me as a very strong character, tough enough to weather the storms, especially when she decides to go in search of her mother and find out where she came from. There are definately quiet a few family secrets in this story that will keep you captivated until the very end.

As this is book two in the Hunger Games Trilogy and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not read the first book yet, here is a link to the goodreads page for Catching Fire for those of you who would like to read what this is about. Check out the link here.

My Review - 9 out of 10

I have to admit that it did take me a while to get into this book, as the end of book 1 was so explosive, I think I was expecting Catching Fire to start with a bang. But I have to say that when I got to about a third of the way through and there were a few things that put a question mark over everything, it just blew me away.

I loved this book and I am definately looking forward to reading the third and final instalment of this trilogy, which is going to be the first book I read in 2012.

When 16-year-old Laura
della Scala learns that her older sister, Beatrice, has drowned, she is
given no time to grieve. Instead, Laura's father removes her from the
convent where he forcibly sent her years earlier and orders her to marry
Beatrice's fiancé, a repulsive old merchant named Vincenzo. Panicked,
Laura betrays a powerful man to earn her way into the Segreta, a shadowy
society of women who deal in only one currency—secrets. The Segreta
seems like the answer to Laura's prayers. The day after she joins their
ranks, Vincenzo is publicly humiliated and conveniently exiled. Soon,
however, Laura begins to suspect that her sister's death was not a
tragic accident but a cold-blooded murder—one that might involve the
Segreta and the women she has come to trust

My Review : 9 out of 10

Expected Publication Date: 13th March 2012

This was a really good story. If I had to classify this into a specific genre, I would put it in murder mystery, most definately. Now I have to admit that I do not usually read murder mysteries and have in the past tried and failed to enjoy them but I really did enjoy reading this book. From the very start of the story, I was drawn into the book. We see Laura who is at some kind of convent, see her learn of her sister's death and being told that she is to marry her husband. I have to admit that for the most part of this book, I suspected everybody of being involved in Beatrice's death. Such great characters in this book; both good and bad and the most interesting thing of all was to try and figure out who was good and who was bad before you got to the end. There are people in this story who are not what they seem, which is also sometimes good and sometimes bad.

This was a really great story and not one that I would have usually picked. There are lots of great twists and turns here and certainly many surprises along the way. If you like books that keep you guessing until the very end, this is definately the book for you.

Allie Sheridan's world is falling apart. She hates her school. Her brother has run away from home. And she's just been arrested.

Again.

This time her parents have finally had enough. They cut her off from
her friends and send her away to a boarding school for problem
teenagers.

But Cimmeria Academy is no ordinary school. Its rules are strangely
archaic. It allows no computers or phones. Its students are an odd
mixture of the gifted, the tough and the privileged. And then there's
the secretive Night School, whose activities other students are
forbidden even to watch.

When Allie is attacked one night the incident sets off a chain of
events leading to the violent death of a girl at the summer ball. As the
school begins to seem like a very dangerous place, Allie must learn who
she can trust. And what's really going on at Cimmeria Academy.